


life drawing

by trulyfine (ssstrychnine)



Category: EXO (Band)
Genre: Alternate Universe - College/University, Alternate Universe - Non-Famous, Fluff, M/M, art class
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-09-14
Updated: 2016-09-14
Packaged: 2018-08-14 23:23:40
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 4,323
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/8033053
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ssstrychnine/pseuds/trulyfine
Summary: kyungsoo is forced to take an art classbaekhyun is the life model





	life drawing

**Monday**

 Kyungsoo doesn’t expect the model to be male. He has no reason to assume they’ll be female either, but he does. He thinks it will be a girl with long hair and smooth lines and he will spend the entire hour trying to draw the way that her hands look, oval fingernails and soft skin. He is far more used to sharp, straight lines and the dashes on a ruler. He resents being made to take an art class at all, female model or not. He and his lecturer disagree on the relevance of life drawing to someone studying architecture.

In any case, the model is a guy, slouching in a chair at the front of the room, fully clothed, for the moment. He is slight and pretty and he’s in an animated conversation with the teacher, hands and hair and eyes. Kyungsoo frowns and turns away and takes his seat. He will be just as useless at drawing a naked man as he would have been drawing a naked woman, he reasons. An artist’s model can be just as inanimate as an imagined building.

When the class is full, the teacher gets their attention. He’s a messy sort of person, not much older than his students, always with a dimple and a smile and his hands smudged with charcoal and his sleeves spotted with paint. Kyungsoo had tried hard to hate him at the beginning, for being the human representation of the art class he really shouldn’t have to take, but he had been unfailingly sweet and calm and slow and Kyungsoo had quickly given up.

“This is Baekhyun,” says Yixing, the teacher. “He’s going to model for us all this week.”

Baekhyun waves a hand, a schoolboy sort of gesture, and his smile is all sharp teeth and genuine seeming happiness. He cocks his head to one side as he waves and his hair is a soft, golden brown and it falls into his eyes with the movement but he doesn’t bother brushing it away, just sticks out his lower lip so he can blow it up and off his face. Kyungsoo doesn’t know why this gesture irritates him so much, but it does. He should be just as uptight as the artists are, sitting rigid in their chairs, waiting for him to strip. Or maybe that’s just Kyungsoo.

"I’m not going to get naked today,” says Baekhyun, fiddling with the buttons on his shirt. “So you don’t have to look so frightened.” He’s looking at Kyungsoo as he says this and his eyes are bright and Kyungsoo looks away so he can rearrange his pencils.

“You’re going to be drawing him in clothing first, because you’re all new and it can make new artists uncomfortable,” says Yixing, peacefully, looking like he’s never been uncomfortable in his life.

 They start off with gesture drawing. Baekhyun trips through a series of poses and the students sketch what they can to get their hands loose and their pencils light. He has pretty hands, thinks Kyungsoo, oval fingernails and soft skin. It stops his pencil sharply and all he gets from the warm up is harsh lines and wobbly shadows. When they finally get to the real drawing, Baekhyun stands. He keeps his stance natural, one hand in his pocket and his weight all on one leg. His shirt is tucked in and the fabric is something slippery, a dusty blue, and it falls open at his collarbones. Kyungsoo has no reason to know how to draw clothing. He draws sharp pleats in Baekhyun’s pants and his naked ankles sticking out at the hem, the sharp bones there, the curve of his sneaker. He draws all the parts of him that seem the sharpest, the collar of his shirt even though it isn’t buttoned right, the line of his jaw even though his mouth is soft above it. He leaves his face and hands as blank space and he hates all of it even though Yixing makes the same soft noise of approval he always makes, when he walks passed.

When the two hours are up, Kyungsoo has passed from irritated to annoyed and he packs up his supplies like it’s their fault he can’t draw. Baekhyun is talking to Yixing again and the point of his canine tooth is just as annoying as the way he blows his hair out of his face. Kyungsoo moves to leave but Baekhyun is in his way, catching at his eyes with a smile.

“I’m sorry I've made this so difficult for you,” he says. His eyes crinkle at the corners when he smiles. Kyungsoo grits his teeth.

“I don't know what you're talking about,” he says, quietly.

 “You looked like you wanted to kill me with your pencil. Can I see your drawing?”

“Baekhyun,” says Yixing, gentle threats in his tone. “Don't harass the artists.”

“I'm not harassing anyone,” says Baekhyun, innocently, not looking away from Kyungsoo. “What's your name?”

 “I have to go,” mumbles Kyungsoo, his cheeks heating even though they shouldn't be, and he pushes passed Baekhyun and out of the classroom

**Tuesday**

 On Tuesday Baekhyun takes off his shirt. Kyungsoo isn’t expecting that either, even though he should be. He sets himself up at his desk and Baekhyun smiles and Yixing smiles and Kyungsoo hates them both. Baekhyun takes his shirt off slowly, like it’s part of the life drawing, like dragging his fingers from button to button is important to the artistic process. Kyungsoo grips his pencil so tightly it shakes a little in his hand and he has to force himself to relax. Obviously he’s seen guys without shirts before. _He_ has been a guy without a shirt. There are prettier guys than Baekhyun too. The fabric of his shirt slips off his shoulders and to the floor and Kyungsoo scowls at his blank paper.

Baekhyun doesn’t look like he ought to shirtless. His mouth is soft and his eyes are soft and his hair is soft but his chest is... not. He’s hard muscle and cut lines. Kyungsoo drops his pencil. Baekhyun _smiles_. His drawing that day is far worse than the day before. Baekhyun becomes wobbly lines on paper, no depth to him or feeling, just blank paper. Kyungsoo can’t draw his face or his hands or his chest so he draws the button and belt loops of his jeans instead and the eyelets and laces of his sneakers. Yixing stops by him for a long time, looking at the disembodied clothing Kyungsoo’s put to paper.

“Are you studying fashion?” he asks, apparently genuinely.

“Um,” says Kyungsoo, and he smudges at a line with his finger. “No?” Yixing moves on.

By the end, he has something a little better. He has a vague impression of Baekhyun’s face, the darks and brights of his eyes, the way his mouth turns down at the corners, the way his hair falls across his forehead. The torso still looks mostly like the drawing a child might do, complete with dots for nipples. It doesn’t help that Baekhyun doesn’t really keep as still as a life model should. He licks his lips and shrugs his shoulders and smiles through his hair and Kyungsoo wants to beat his head against the desk long before the two hours are up. He settles for running his hands through his hair over and over again, because it’s easier to do than drawing.

When their time is up he slams his sketchbook shut and puts his pencils away as Baekhyun pulls his t-shirt back on over his head. His hair fluffs out everywhere when he gets it on properly, staticky and wild. He pats at it with a hand and laughs to himself and then he catches Kyungsoo staring and his smile widens.

“You don’t want to kill me today,” he calls out, just loud enough that Kyungsoo can hear him across the room. He ignores it, shoves his pencil case and sketchbook into his backpack, gets up to follow his classmates out. Baekhyun stops him again, the tips of his fingers to Kyungsoo’s chest. “I could model for you privately,” he says. “If it’s the class that’s making you uncomfortable.”

“N-no, thank you,” stammers Kyungsoo, snatching himself away from Baekhyun’s touch, and he leaves the room as quickly as he can.

At home he comes close to dropping the class completely. He opens up his timetable, hovers his cursor over the “drop” button, almost clicks it a thousand times. But it’s passed the point where he would get reimbursed his fees and the architecture department would only make him take it again. Even if Baekhyun didn’t model for any other classes, he couldn’t put himself through two weeks of drawing fruit and feathers again. He wonders what piece of clothing Baekhyun will remove tomorrow and he hopes that it’s something arbitrary, like a piece of jewellery.

It’s not that he’s a prude. He’s just not used to being that uncomfortable during class. Usually when he’s at university he’s concentrating fiercely, in a warm sort of study bubble if he thinks he’s getting something right, happy in the glow that comes with learning something new. In art class it’s bowls of fruit that look different every day even if they’re the same fruit and guys that also look different every day even though they’re the same guy, soft and then hard. Kyungsoo doesn’t like to feel out of depth. Or maybe it’s just because Baekhyun is cute. That’s definitely a possibility. 

**Wednesday**

 There are a flock of new students in the class the next day. Most of them are girls and they sit close to the front and some of them don’t even take out pencils and paper. Yixing sorts them out quickly, shuffling out those who are there just because their friends told them about Baekhyun and his washboard abs. He watches this with a lazy grin and he flutters his fingers at the girls as they leave and they hide their smiles behind their hands. He’s wearing a robe. Kyungsoo takes his seat, worries at his lower lip with his teeth.

“Don’t worry,” Baekhyun says, looking at him and no one else. “No dicks today either.”

“Stop,” Kyungsoo mutters, twirling his pencil between his fingers.

He’s wearing boxer briefs under his robe and really it’s not a lot better that if he were completely naked. Kyungsoo can’t even focus on his clothing because there isn’t much too it, just black fabric and white seams and the elastic at the waist. He falls back on drawing his face, his tongue peeking out against his lower lip, his uneven top lip, the hooded curve of his eyes. It’s a bad drawing, because Kyungsoo _isn’t_ an artist, but it’s easier than drawing the insides of his thighs. He even tries his torso this time, the lesser of two evils, his shoulders and the dip and rise of his collarbones and the steps of his ribs to his waist. Yixing hums in approval when he walks passed and Kyungsoo almost crumples up his drawing on the spot.

Baekhyun is still quite unable to keep still. He yawns, covers his mouth with his hand, the flash of his teeth, and then he laughs, screws up his face ruefully; half an apology in his expression.

“You’re all so quiet,” he says, halfway through, and Yixing presses his forefinger to his lips to shush him.

All that Kyungsoo can think about is that tomorrow Baekhyun will be completely naked and he’s going to draw some sort of smudgy blur where his dick should be and Yixing is going to fail him on the spot. A body should be just as inanimate as an imagined building, to an artist, Kyungsoo thinks bitterly, but it isn’t true at all. He doesn’t know how he’s supposed to look at someone so pretty and be unmoved. Especially someone so pretty who is always laughing at him.

When they’re done Kyungsoo puts his stuff away and stands up. He expects Baekhyun to stop him and when he does, his palm to Kyungsoo’s shoulder, he stops.

“What?” he asks, pitching his voice as flat as he can. Baekhyun blinks and then he smiles, not the smirk he uses when he’s modelling, but something clearer and happier, like when he’s talking to Yixing.

“I’m sorry,” he says, hand dropping from Kyungsoo’s shoulder “I don’t mean to tease you, you just always look so cute.”

“I...” Kyungsoo shakes his head a little. “I doubt that.”

“No, you do,” Baekhyun insists. “You look really focussed but your ears go red.”

“They do not.”

“Yixing, he looks cute, right?” Yixing laughs and shrugs and smiles crookedly so his dimple shows. Kyungsoo hates both of them. He shakes his head, unable to speak, and Baekhyun’s bright laughter follows him out of the room. 

**Thursday**

 On Thursday, Kyungsoo skips class. He debates with himself for a long time about it and decides that really it’s impossible for him to go. He has Baekhyun’s laughter stuck in his head, and his voice and his smile, and he doesn’t want to lose all that to his dick. He stays in his room instead, drawing with a ruler like a civilised person.

He leaves, eventually, because he has other classes and because he needs to eat. He’s had a hard time focussing in his room anyway, he keeps feeling like he ought to be in class, drawing Baekhyun’s thighs, his hands, his everything. It’s stupid. He’s not an artist. He lines up to get bubble tea before class, something he only buys when he's feeling sorry for himself. When someone taps him on the shoulder, he knows it’s going to be Baekhyun before he turns around. Baekhyun in a plain grey t-shirt and a smile like sunshine. Kyungsoo licks his lips and tries to stop himself from wilting in surrender.

“You didn't come to class,” says Baekhyun, sticking out his lower lip in an exaggeration of a pout.

“I had errands to run,” says Kyungsoo. His voice comes out dry and scratchy and he licks his lips again. He isn't sure why he’s making up an excuse, it's not like they're in high school and he needs a note from his parents explaining why he wasn’t there. Baekhyun isn’t even his teacher, just a naked guy he thinks is cute. It takes him a little bit too long to realise that his hand is on his shoulder still and when he shrugs it off Baekhyun’s eyes get a little wider.

“Are you coming tomorrow?”

“I don’t know if I’ll have time.”

“You know Yixing will understand if it makes you uncomfortable,” he says. His hand is still hovering near Kyungsoo’s shoulder, like he wants to touch him again. Kyungsoo squares his posture, licks his lips again. Baekhyun’s eyes dart down to the movement and then back up, narrowed a little, like he thinks Kyungsoo’s doing it on purpose and not because his mouth is so dry he can hardly speak.

“I don’t care about your dick, Baekhyun,” he says, roughly, trying to embody the sort of person who says something like that. Surprisingly, Baekhyun blushes scarlet, laughs a little helplessly. Kyungsoo wants to laugh too, he didn’t think it was possible for a life model to blush. He turns away, pretending to check his position in the queue, but really he does it to hide that he is smiling.

He orders his tea and Baekhyun orders something too and they stand together, waiting for it to be made. Baekhyun fiddles with his phone. Kyungsoo runs his hands through his hair. Baekhyun pushes himself up onto the toes of his shoes. Kyungsoo tries not to think about what he’d looked like without his shirt on.

“I think you should talk to Yixing,” says Baekhyun, when both of their drinks are ready and they’re hovering awkwardly outside. “He wouldn’t mind if you skipped tomorrow. Are you even an art major?”

“No,” Kyungsoo laughs, only a little bitter. “I’m an architecture major. I still can’t fail this paper.”

“Yixing hasn’t failed anyone in his life,” Baekhyun snorts. “Come and talk to him after class tomorrow, I can help you.”

“Why?” Kyungsoo frowns. “What do you care if I don’t want to do life drawing?”

Baekhyun laughs, this raspy, embarrassed sound that surprises Kyungsoo all over again. He scrubs his fingers through his hair and wrinkles his nose and chews at his lip and Kyungsoo can only watch. There are a thousand different things to notice every time he moves. The tiny freckle above his lip, the way his mouth looks sad and happy at the same time, the way the light hits his cheekbones perfectly when he smiles. Kyungsoo chews on his straw.

“I’m worried that if you see me naked before I ask you out, you’ll say no,” he says, squinting at Kyungsoo through his hair, expecting the worst. Kyungsoo doesn’t really know what to say. He sucks hard at his straw and the tapioca balls shoot down the back of his throat and has to drink quickly to stop himself from choking.

“Is it that disappointing?” he manages to ask, when he’s more composed. Baekhyun grins, blindingly bright.

“Of course not,” he says, with iron confidence. "But we should see each others dicks at the same time, I think. It’s more romantic that way..”

“What makes you think I’ll say yes?”

“You’ll say yes,” he smiles. “Because I’m adorable.”

“You’re...” Kyungsoo frowns. “Not that.”

“You’ll still say yes,” Baekhyun’s tongue is between his teeth. He looks stupid and cute. “I have somewhere to be now, I’ll see you tomorrow.” He’s gone in an instant and Kyungsoo stands outside the bubble tea place for a long time, trying to figure out whether or not he’s being made fun of. Baekhyun doesn’t even know his name. 

**Friday**

 Kyungsoo doesn’t go to class on Friday either. He lurks around campus instead, sitting at the cafe closest to the art department, drinking too much coffee and trying to come up with a plan. He doesn’t really know what for, a plan to talk to Yixing or a plan to talk to Baekhyun, he just wants to feel a little bit less like he’s got no control over the situation. He has his sketchbook with him and he flicks passed drawings of buildings and floor plans and then fruit and feathers until he gets to his drawings of Baekhyun. They haven’t improved. They’re still messy and flat and there is no confidence in his pencil lines. He thinks he might have got his mouth right though. Or at least close to right.

He heads toward the class just before it should be ending. He drags his hand along the walls as he walks, trying to keep himself from hurrying. He passes his classmates leaving and some of them smile at him and some of them frown and he just nods. He waits until they’ve all left before he goes inside. Baekhyun has a robe on again and his feet are bare. Yixing is checking paint bottles and brushes.

“I’m sorry I haven’t been to class,” says Kyungsoo, as a greeting. Baekhyun spins in place, grins hugely when he sees that it’s him. Yixing looks confused, but not angry.

“It’s fine,” he says. “You weren’t the only one.”

“I scared people with my handsomeness,” says Baekhyun gravely.

“Was this the last day of life drawing?” Kyungsoo asks. He fiddles with the strap of his backpack, looks at Yixing because it’s easier to look at him than at Baekhyun who is watching him through his eyelashes.

“Yes, we’re doing buildings next week,” says Yixing.

“Then Kyungsoo will get top in the class,” says Baekhyun, confidently.

“You know my name?”

“Of course, I asked Yixing the first day, when you wouldn’t tell me,” he laughs. “I hope that’s alright.”

“Baekhyunnie has been talking about you constantly,” says Yixing, smiling. “It’s annoying.”

“ _Why_?”

“Because you’re pretty,” says Baekhyun, fluttering his eyelashes.

“Stop,” Kyungsoo rolls his eyes.

“I have another class soon,” says Yixing, “if you wouldn’t mind...”

They leave the classroom together. Baekhyun disappears into the bathroom with his backpack and Kyungsoo waits for him, chewing on his fingernails, fiddling with his hair. When he comes back he’s dressed and he looks relieved that Kyungsoo is still there at all. Kyungsoo smiles. They walk together down the hallway.

They go to the cafe Kyungsoo had been at while he waited for the class to finish. Baekhyun orders something caramel sweet and sticky and Kyungsoo gets a brownie, because he’s had too much coffee already. They sit at a table outside and Baekhyun leans back in his chair and shuts his eyes and the sun falls across him like a blanket of light.

“Was it scary?” Kyungsoo asks, unable to think of anything else. “Being a life drawing model?” Baekhyun opens his eyes.

“Not really,” he says. “I’m a drama student, my body is a tool.”

Kyungsoo laughs. “That's... unsurprising.”

“I was a little bit scared to take my clothes off in front of you though,” he says, thoughtfully. He breaks a piece off his caramel slice and eats it, licks his fingers, hums with pleasure. “It’s hard to get naked in front of someone you think is... I don't know... hot.” He laughs.

“Even if they’re a stranger?”

“Yeah,” Baekhyun shrugs. “But it turned out alright. You didn’t see me properly naked so we can date now.”

“I still haven’t said yes.”

“I still haven't asked,” Baekhyun retorts, grinning savagely. There is caramel at the corners of his lips and Kyungsoo wants so badly to reach over and wipe it off, but he doesn't.

When they’ve finished their sweets they leave the cafe and walk together across the campus. Baekhyun talks a lot, about nothing and everything, and Kyungsoo is surprised to find it doesn’t annoy him. It’s somehow comfortable, Baekhyun’s particular way of being noisy.

Eventually they find they have to go their separate ways. Baekhyun has a class and Kyungsoo wants to go home and eat something that isn’t ninety percent sugar. They stop outside the building where Baekhyun’s class is and Kyungsoo clasps his hands in front of him and Baekhyun grins in this annoyingly knowing way like he can read Kyungsoo’s mind. Kyungsoo frowns. Baekhyun’s smile gets wider.

“So, Kyungsoo,” he says, teasingly, drawing the words out. “Wanna come with me to see a movie tomorrow?”

“What movie?”

“It doesn’t matter.”

“Come to my place,” says Kyungsoo and Baekhyun’s eyes get very wide. “We can watch something there.”

“Ah, and I thought you were shy,” Baekhyun laughs. “I’ll bring snacks.”

Baekhyun gives him his phone and Kyungsoo adds his number and it’s settled. Baekhyun reaches across the space between them and for one heart-stopping minute Kyungsoo thinks he’s going to touch his mouth, but he just pulls gently at a piece of his hair. Kyungsoo scowls and Baekhyun laughs and starts to move backwards away from him, eyes never leaving his face. Kyungsoo rolls his eyes and turns away first and he can hear Baekhyun still laughing as he leaves. 

**Saturday**

 On Saturday they watch movies at Kyungsoo’s house. Baekhyun brings popcorn and chocolate and they sit together on Kyungsoo’s couch. Baekhyun drapes his arm across the back of the couch and tickles Kyungsoo’s neck whenever something serious is happening on screen. Kyungsoo elbows him in the side until he shrieks with laughter and wriggles away. They lose track of the first movie completely then because Baekhyun fights back by leaning over and kissing him on the forehead. It’s a ridiculous way to retaliate and for a moment Kyungsoo can’t even speak, can only stare, helpless, and Baekhyun’s looking at him with a fight in his eyes. Kyungsoo kisses him back, on the mouth, because he wants to win. Baekhyun doesn’t seem to mind.

They spend the rest of the day sun-drunk and kiss-drunk and at one point Baekhyun convinces Kyungsoo to show him the drawings he’d done in class. He flips through the pages, smiling and tracing the lines with his finger.

“You like me so much,” he says, with satisfaction. “You even drew my freckles.”

“I’m a realist,” Kyungsoo scoffs.

“Then how come my nipples look like that?” Baekhyun shakes his head. “They’re much prettier than that in real life.”

“No they’re not.”

“Yes they are! I have fans, you saw those girls.”

“I think you probably paid them.”

Baekhyun throws himself at Kyungsoo again and their date devolves into sunshine and kissing again. They stretch out together on the couch. Kyungsoo thinks it’s probably the best date he’s ever been on, no awkward small talk or bad food or bad jokes, just nice things, even if they are moving a little faster than he’s used to. It doesn’t matter. It feels like the right speed. He’s already seen Baekhyun practically naked after all.

Saturday is their first date and Sunday is their second, eating street food and walking through the city, talking about everything that they are. Baekhyun knows the choreography to an endless number of girl group songs. Kyungsoo can recite the entire first episode of Prince of Tennis off by heart. Baekhyun has seen almost no movies, even though he’s a drama student. Kyungsoo can’t ride a bike. They end up back at Kyungsoo’s house again and he makes them hot chocolate and then he licks sticky marshmellow off Baekhyun’s lower lip.

On Monday he has art class again and Yixing smiles at him and he draws buildings far more confidently than he ever drew Baekhyun. It doesn’t matter, he’s not an artist and Baekhyun’s not an inanimate object. After class he texts him and Baekhyun texts back instantly, pink hearts and kissing faces. It’s absurd and Kyungsoo doesn’t quite understand how it happened but he doesn’t care. He supposes he got something out of art class after all.

 

**Author's Note:**

> this was written for the prompt 'abs' which tbh terrified me when i got it because i don't usually write stuff like this but. there you go. it's about as close to smut as ill ever go (and it is nowhere near lmao). also there is another life drawing fic in the tag and it stressed me out a little bit cos idk i started this before i saw that but umm. tbh it doesn't matter hahaha im just being whatever. anyway im @tabeorin on tumblr, say hello! thank you for reading !!!


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